David Bayles & Ted Orland:

To make art is to sing with the human voice. To do this you must first learn that the only voice you need is the voice you already have.

Art & Fear, p. 117

Marshall Chapman:

Often in music, as in life, things that aren't planned turn out best. There's more space for magic that way.

Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, p. 133

Rachel Held Evans:

Some Christians are more offended by the idea of everyone going to heaven than by the idea of everyone going to hell.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 113

Meeting Marin

Last night, I met author, speaker, bridge builder Andrew Marin after he spoke at Nashville's Belmont University. I've been a fan of his work ever since reading his book, Love Is an Orientation. I was pleased to meet the courageous young leader in person after following his blog for some time.

Andrew Marin:

The "Gospel" is based on a life lived, not a construction of how to get saved...The "Gospel" will be felt with more impact through active unspoken mediums than any intellectualized ones.

"What Is the 'Gospel'? To Me It Is..."

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

We tell the stories we have to tell, stories of the things that draw us in -- and why should any of us have more than a handful of those? The only work really worth doing -- the only work you can do convincingly -- is the work that focuses on the things you care about.

Art & Fear, p. 116

Gabe Lyons:

The way we interact with the rest of the world looks and feels dramatically different than if we only saw our singular mission in life as to "get others saved." For example, the next Christians are provoked, not offended -- simply put, the next Christians are running toward the problems of our world. They're not offended by seeing sin or being around corruption or confronted with some of the evil and injustice of the world. They're provoked to get involved, to get busy with the work of seeing that solved. Instead of being critics when these issues arise, they starting creating a better culture. They are creators, not critics.

Relevant, "The Next Christians" by Roxanne Wieman

Marshall Chapman:

Sometimes I think we songwriters have it made. Our hearts get broken...we write about it, which saves us a shitload in psychiatrist fees...then we get royalty checks in the mail for doing something we'd've done anyway. For me, it's like getting paid to breathe. Not bad work if you can get it.

Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, p. 100

Rachel Held Evans:

You can't get too far into the Gospels without noticing that Jesus made a pretty lousy apologist. I'm convinced he would have flunked out of any halfway decent Christian liberal arts institution. Jesus responded more with questions than with answers. He preferred story to exposition. Despite boasting infinite wisdom and limitless knowledge, Jesus chose not to overtly address religious pluralism, the problem of evil, hermeneutics, science, or homosexuality. He didn't provide bullet-point answers for detractors or lengthy explanations to doubters. He didn't make following him logical or easy.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 102-103

Wayne Jacobsen:

If you earn love, isn't it just a wage?

The God Journey, "The Freedom of Vulnerability"

Bishop Jim Swilley:

Why would a man like me, who has nothing to gain and everything to lose, stand up one day and say "Hey, I want to tell everyone that I'm gay" if it weren't true? Why would I jeopardize everything that I've worked so hard to build for my entire life? If people would just think about it, it's illogical to think that people would make it up or even to choose to be this way if it were a choice?

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Over the long run, the people with the interesting answers are those who ask the interesting questions.

Art & Fear, p. 113

Betsy Phillips:

It's kind of funny. The older I get the more I think that making a space for your own happiness, to find ways to be happy, even in the face of all the forces that try to make sure that you can't have something ephemeral that they don't have, is really revolutionary, really threatening.

Tiny Cat Pants, "The Blehs"

Audre Lorde:

Your silence will not protect you.

Rachel Held Evans:

The teachings of Jesus fly in the face of all we are told by our culture and even by the church about setting boundaries, getting even, achieving financial success, and "calling sin a sin."

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 104

Steve Buckley:

... I have read sobering stories about people who came undone, killing themselves after being outed. These tragic events helped guide me to the belief that if more people are able to be honest about who they are, ultimately fewer people will feel such devastating pressure.

Boston Herald, "Welcome to my coming-out party"

Randy Pausch:

I've always believed that if you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.

The Last Lecture, p. 138

Thomas Jefferson:

I cannot live without books.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Answers are reassuring, but when you're onto something really useful, it will probably take the form of a question.

Art & Fear, p. 113

Bishop Jim Swilley:

With every credible person that continues to come out, surely people will begin to realize that this isn't a fad. It's just people telling who they are.

Bookin' It in 2010

I read the following 18 books in 2010. The titles in bold were particularly influential, inspiring or interesting.

1. Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity - Hugh MacLeod

2. Time to Write: More Than 100 Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing into Your Busy Life - Kelly L. Stone

3. Lunch Poems - Frank O'Hara

4. Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back - Frank Schaeffer

5. Sinners Welcome - Mary Karr

6. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking - David Bayles & Ted Orland

7. Temper - Beth Bachmann

8. Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess - Matthew Paul Turner

9. Drops Like Stars - Rob Bell

10. The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Tells About God - Darin Hufford

11. Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon

12. Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost - Matthew Paul Turner

13. The Liars' Club - Mary Karr

14. Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer - Chely Wright

15. Bicycles: Love Poems - Nikki Giovanni

16. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - A. J. Jacobs

17. Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in The Peoples Temple - Deborah Layton

18. Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions - Rachel Held Evans